Brotherhood

My father was an orphan. He spent his childhood and early youth in public boarding schools / orphanages.

When I was 10 years old, his achievements were present everywhere: university degree, a happy young family and his very own successful construction company. He was not the only successful one. Many of his "brothers", school classmates, were politicians, lawyers, accountants, etc.

Every so often we met all those "brothers". We saw the collection of expensive cars at the entrance of the mansion of one of them. It was a party of the brotherhood. They were not called by their christian names, only by their nickname. One was "the rat", because he had a long nose and a very small mouth. Another one was "skeleton", because during school days he was so thin that you could see every single bone in his body. No one praised anyone for his financial achievements. On the contrary, they made jokes of the silly moments of the past. Also, the conversations touched upon my generation, the children of the brotherhood.

There were some very special brothers, who I remember most. One became a barber and the other a pharmacist. For as long as I can remember my father just cut his hair at the barbershop of his brother. He also just bought medicine at the pharmacy of his brother. It was not as simple as it sounds. We (yes, we all: my dad, my mom, my sister and I) drove one full hour to see them. I thought this was quite silly of my dad. There were so many barbers and pharmacies around the corner of our house.

This past weekend was the 10th anniversary of my MBA graduation. About 50% of my class came to Rotterdam. It was quite a phenomenon. We had people flying in from Japan, from Brazil, from Taiwan, from Colombia... The transportation time had no comparison with the one hour travel visit to my dad's "brothers".  My class has more or less the same age as my dad when I was 10 years old. We do exactly the same as they did:

• call ourselves with our "brotherhood name",
• visit each other no matter the distance,
• treat us as brothers no matter how different we look,
• comfort the pain of the brother when needed,
• celebrate weddings, births...

We are just there for each other. When I was a child I wondered what kept them so close to each other after all those years. I wondered what they talked about. Now I have my opportunity to have my own answers with my own experiences. We talk about things that matter: children, love, health, family... It is completely irrelevant which car we drive, how much money we earn, which title we have... What really matters is happiness, health and love. In recent years some of my dad's "brothers" have passed away. My dad has the peaceful feeling of having been there all the time for them.

You also have brothers and sisters: those ones who care for you no matter where you live, which job you have, who you are married to or if you are single...  Pick up the phone and call him, call her. Now, don't wait. Now it's the time to show your love and appreciation. Now. Now. Now.

Thank you RSM class of 1999 to remind me what a fabulous family I got. Thank you dad for teaching to love my "brothers and sisters".

---

The information in this article may be freely re-used in any online or offline publication, provided it is accompanied by the following credit line - "This information was written by Blanca Vergara, and originally appeared www.blancavergara.com"

 

« Blog

Comments: